How does Fathers and Sons depict generational conflict in Russia?

In Ivan Turgenev's 1862 novel Fathers and Sons, the generational conflict in Russia is depicted as an inevitable clash between the traditionalist values of the older generation and the radical, intellectual skepticism of the younger generation.12

The novel centers on the protagonist, Bazarov, a nihilist who rejects all authority—including that of the state, the church, and the family—in favor of scientific rationalism and materialism. This ideological divide manifests as a rupture between the gentry intelligentsia, to which Turgenev belonged, and the emerging nongentry revolutionary intelligentsia.132

Turgenev portrays this tension with remarkable balance, illustrating how the nihilists' rejection of traditional social bonds and family authority made conflict between parents and children immanent. While the novel was criticized by both radicals, who felt it slandered their movement, and conservatives, who viewed it as too lenient toward nihilism, it remains a profound sociopsychological portrait of the era's shifting political and social landscape.231